A commitment to a shift but also a commitment to pursuit of core competence and development of new strategies to defeat subversion, coercion, economic and political warfare, etc., etc.,
Excerpt of irregular warfare annex below - complete summary at link.
Also, an excerpt from the introductory article from the Modern War Institute at West Point below
THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT JUST PUBLISHED A SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY’S IRREGULAR WARFARE ANNEX. HERE’S WHY IT’S SO SIGNIFICANT.
Kevin Bilms | October 2, 2020
This week, the Defense Department released an unclassified summary of the Irregular Warfare (IW) Annex to the National Defense Strategy. It declares that, with respect to IW, the department will maintain “sufficient, enduring capabilities to advance national security objectives across the spectrum of competition and conflict.” Renewed focus on great power competition suggests a shift away from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency missions, but no one should interpret this shift to imply the wholesale abandonment of the relevant toolsets and expertise of IW.
Instead, the IW Annex represents an approach to state competition that is attuned to the competitive landscape and hostile states’ strategies against the United States. Adopting this approach requires rethinking what constitutes IW, how IW fits into interagency frameworks for competition, and the ability for IW to proactively contest malign activities short of conflict.
https://mwi.usma.edu/the-defense-dep...o-significant/
Annex:
SUMMARY OF THE IRREGULAR WARFARE ANNEX TO THE NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY
Irregular warfare is an enduring, economical contribution to America’s national security, and will remain an essential core competency of the U.S. Department of Defense.
The character and form of war are constantly changing, yet its fundamental nature remains the same. Though Great Power Competition is now our primary national security challenge – a departure from conducting almost two decades of continuous irregular war against violent extremist organizations worldwide – the requirement for mastery of irregular warfare persists. Far from abandoning these critical competencies, we will sharpen these capabilities for application against peer competitor, nation-state adversaries.
This summary of the Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy explains that irregular warfare is to be institutionalized as a core competency with sufficient, enduring capabilities to advance national security objectives across the spectrum of competition and conflict, in alignment with the NDS. The Department will employ these concepts and capabilities in a resource-sustainable approach to dictate the terms and tempo of competition to prevail against all global adversaries short of war, and build and sustain our global advantage in careful coordination with allies and partners. Should war come, these capabilities will shape the environment to ensure combat dominance and our ability to end any conflict on our terms.
Consequently, the Department of Defense will: (1) make permanent the mindset and capabilities necessary to succeed in its current irregular warfare mission sets; and (2) leverage all irregular capabilities in our arsenal, including the unique abilities of our interagency and foreign partners, to compete against revisionist powers and violent extremist organizations alike. This approach does not require significant new resources to meet our strategic vision; it requires new ideas and new means of employing existing capabilities.
We must not — and will not — repeat the “boom and bust” cycle that has left the United States underprepared for irregular warfare in both Great Power Competition and conflict. Americans expect their military to do more than react to crises, they expect us to compete and maintain our advantages.
https://media.defense.gov/2020/Oct/0...gy-Summary.PDF
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